Council hears Phragmites Australis up-date

Parks and recreation supervisor Mike Fair told council at its August 8 meeting in Ripley that progress was made in removing the invasive species.

“On Monday July 16, we began hand cutting this invasive grass at Point Clark Beach, south of the Lighthouse. We completed the Point Clark area in two days with the assistance of 35 volunteers and 5 Stewardship Rangers, this was a very labour intensive project,” he said.

“The Phragmites was cut, loaded onto tarps, hauled to our waiting trucks and delivered to the landfill site.” Barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs were provided by the H-K Observer, cooked up at the cottage of Wendy and Bob Murdie. The Amberley General Store and Point Clark resident and volunteer Amanda Savage also pitched in with donations of food for the volunteers that day. Tuesday July 17, hand cutting grass continued. “We left small piles for the local cottage owners to burn at their leisure, due to the restricted access to trucks.”

“There remains a two-acre parcel, which is too large for manual cutting. We propose to have a large tractor cut this parcel, leave the grass to dry until September, then do a controlled burn. We have consulted Fire Chief Doug Martyn and propose to have the Ripley Fire Department supervise the burn of this parcel during a Saturday in September using the tanker with proper weather conditions.”

“On July 12, we cut the grass at Lurgan Beach, left it in pile to dry and burnt in on July 18 th. Fifteen volunteers participated,” said Fair.

“On July 19, we did not complete the Boiler Beach burning due to weather conditions, but plan to return.”

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